From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcaptioncap‧tion /ˈkæpʃən/ noun [countable] TCNwords printed above or below a picture in a book or newspaper or on a television screen to explain what the picture is showing → subtitle —caption verb [transitive] a photograph of the couple captioned ‘rebuilding their romance’
Examples from the Corpus
caption• This is when those photographs are taken and published with their phoney captions which not unnaturally wring the hearts of the uninitiated.• Several of the photo captions are mixed up and some text is missing from pages 117-118.• Christine showed me a book based on their documentary and explained the captions under the photographs.• Finally, would it be possible to have the copy for the captions by Friday 16 June 1989?• No mention was made in the article or in the captions of artificial colors being used.• By chance he is also the winner of the caption competition we carried in the June issue!• Likewise to John Jensen, for whose brilliant illustrations this column has served as an 800-word caption.Origin caption (1700-1800) caption “act of seizing or arresting, document allowing this” ((14-19 centuries)), from Latin captio “act of taking”, from capere; → CAPTIVE1 